One of the advantages of CJC-1295 over traditional GHRH or rHGH is its ability to bioconjugate with serum albumin, thus increasing its half-life and therapeutic window. It accomplishes this by using protecting groups around the amino acids of GHRH typically susceptible to enzymatic degradation.

Clinical Research was first conducted for CJC-1295 during the mid-2000s. The objective of the peptide was to treat visceral fat deposits in obese AIDS patients, as increased levels of exogenous are presumed to increase lipolysis (fat loss). The clinical research was ultimately successful for most research subjects.

CJC-1295 is a tetrasubstituted peptide analogue of GHRH with D-Ala, Gln, Ala, and Leu substitutions at positions 2, 8, 15, and 27 respectively. These substitutions create a much more stable peptide with the substitution at position 2 to prevent DPP-IV cleavage, position 8 to reduce asparagine rearrangement or amide hydrolysis to aspartic acid, position 15 to enhance bioactivity, and position 27 to prevent methionine oxidation. These substitutions are key in increasing the overall half life of CJC-1295 but there lies an even greater reason as to why the half life has been extended from ~7 minutes to greater than 7 days! Bioconjugation is a relatively newer technology that takes a reactive group and attaches it to a peptide, which in turn reacts with a nucleophilic (usually a partially negative molecule) entity found in the blood to form a more stable bond. Albumin, one of the most abundant substances in the human body is chosen as the nucelophile by this particular peptide thanks to a Cys34 thiol group that attracts it. By combining the tetrasubstituted GHRH analogue with maleimodoproprionic acid using a Lys linker, you create a GHRH peptide with a high binding affinity for albumin. Once the CJC-1295 molecule has attached itself to albumin, it is given an extended half life and bioavailability thanks to the albumin preventing enzymatic degredation and kidney excretion. In fact, bioconjugation is so effective that there was less than 1% of CJC-1295 left unreacted in vivo and over 90% was stabilized after subQ admin. This means that you get more of what you paid for working for you. There was no DPP-IV degredation observed on CJC-1295 in any of the various experiments conducted.

Due to the extremely long half life of CJC-1295 it is plausible for researchers to use this peptide once per week with outstanding results. Various experiments have been conducted to test the effectiveness of CJC-1295 in vivo and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism has reported dose-dependent increases in mean plasma GH concentrations by 2-10 fold for more than 6 days and increased concentrations 1.5-3 fold for 9-11 days after a single injection! Not only that but they proved the mean half life to be 5.8-8.1 days and after multiple doses showed mean levels remained above baseline for up to 28 days following! No serious adverse reactions were reported in any group.